Archive for the ‘Prison’ category

As an 8 year old child his father showed him how to clean and assemble a handgun. As you can imagine, from then on things went from bad to worse and he ended up addicted to drink, drugs and violence. He told me he had served 20 years altogether in his 47 years of life.

Amazingly, he has come out the other end and is now going round schools warning children of the dangers – and consequences – they face if they go down a similar route. He told me doesn’t hold back when he describes prison life in all its messy details.

What brought about this remarkable change? He met Jesus in prison and is now a born again Christian. Needless to say his father is at a loss to understand him and has rejected him. He told me that God had never let him down and, although he has never had a lot, he has always had enough.

I was really touched by his story. I gave him my website URL and invited him to send me his testimony, setting out what he was like before he became a Christian and the change that happened in his life afterwards. We discussed local churches and I suggested one he might like to try out. Finally I prayed for him that God might use him powerfully to reach others.

He’s now a grandfather, but his early days were horrendous. Abused physically and sexually by his father, he grew up confused, angry and feeling unloved.

No surprise therefore that he spent a total of 20 years in prison, five of them for armed robbery. He went down the drugs route, ending up on crack cocaine.

man behind bars

Now he’s moved on and slowly getting a sense of perspective and that it wasn’t all his fault. Thankfully he treated his children and grandchildren in a more loving way.

I told him that I knew someone who loves him as he is, and has always loved him. I shared about God, Jesus, sin and repentance. He told me he recently went to church. I told him about the church I attended, and he said: “that’s near where I live”. He couldn’t come this week, but might be able to come next Sunday. He took away a gospel tract.

A very agitated guy came in with his pal for food today. I thought he might be withdrawing from drugs. In the course of a general chat he said to me ” I’m a friend”. I looked at him in a puzzled way and he clarified: “a Friend – a Quaker”. We chatted about this and he said he was “looking for the light”. I said “you mean God” and he replied “I don’t know if there is a God”. He went on to tell me he’d done around 7 years total in prison. He’d just come out on Christmas Eve from his last stint of 6 weeks. In the past he used to take cars, but now he does shoplifting mostly.

He then told me he was a Roman Catholic and had been confirmed in the last year. In prison he’d enjoyed reading the lesson in chapel. I asked if he went to confession. He said he didn’t, as he’d have to confess his sins. I told him that might do him good, but he wasn’t convinced. As he got up to leave I said: “would you like a New Testament?” He said, to my surprise, “I’d love a New Testament!” So off he went with his New Testament. I pray he reads it and gets convicted by the Holy Spirit of his need for forgiveness.

Nowadays you don’t need to subscribe to traditional Christian beliefs to be a Quaker. Things have changed.

He told me he’d just served five and a half years in prison for carrying a gun in his car, taking it for a friend to use (keep in mind that this is England, UK). Back outside, he now was sliding down the slope of alcoholism, waking each morning with the shakes and needing to drink. He opened his rucksack and showed me the chemical rot gut he was drinking “that has never seen an apple in its life”. He also showed me the scars on both his wrists where he’d tried to do himself in.

I told him straight that only God could sort out his life. I then shared some of my testimony. I gave him a few gospel illustrations and then asked if he’d like me to pray for him. He said he would, so I called over a colleague and we both prayed that God would set him free and that God’s kingdom would be made known in his life. We didn’t pray for healing, nor did he say he had any pain. But as soon as we finished praying he told us straight away that the pain in his liver had completely gone. I told him that was the reality of a loving God who cared for him. As he left, I advised him to read the gospel tract I gave him and to pray the prayer at the end, if he wanted a new life. On a practical level, I put him in touch with the Army welfare system, as he was an ex-soldier.

Ten minutes later we had a new guy and his partner in for food. The man had terminal cancer and was in constant pain. I shared that we’d just seen the alcoholic guy’s liver pain get taken away. The new guy said: “I don’t believe in God” I said: “that’s OK – we do!” He then let us pray for him, which we did several times, on different parts of his body. He felt some reduction in pain, but not a huge amount. We asked his partner if she had any pains. She said she had some in her neck, which was probably stress. We offered prayer and she agreed, so we laid hands on her. She too felt an improvement. They then left with their food.

While we were laying hands on the woman I said to a third guy, newly arrived, “you’re next!” He laughed and said something I didn’t catch. We finally moved on to the third guy, who explained he was an atheist and believed in evolution and science.

We then had a long chat about these things while his food parcel was being prepared. We also talked about the conscience (con=with and science=knowledge) and how we have this inbuilt guidance system. I gave him my website card and offered to send him a link to a Ray Comfort video where Ray challenges US scientists on evolution. As he got up to leave, the client had a hard job getting on his feet. I asked what’s up and he said “it’s arthritis”. I said: “come back next week for a further chat and we’ll pray for you”.

We had a succession of clients in for food today who’d all just been released from prison in the past few days. Problem is, they come out having been given around £50 and have to get on with it. One guy was clearly “out of it” on drink, as he took a while to make it through the door! One young guy, who was no more than 23, said he’s just done his SIXTH prison sentence.

One of the ex-cons was a woman, who I recognised as being in before. She recognised me too. She has a drink problem and inevitably ends up fighting and getting arrested. When she’s sober, she’s a lovely girl, like today. She plans to move to an area outside town, to get away from “the wrong people”. I told her about a church plant in the district she’s going to, and said how friendly they were. She took the phone number, so I hope she goes along. She doesn’t have any church background whatever, so I hope she goes!

An older woman came in with one of her children. She was a single mum, with five kids altogether. Her partner of 16 years had been shown the door after getting another woman pregnant. The client said this was the last straw, as he’d had 12 affairs with other women in their 16 years together.

Before going out to share Jesus I asked the Lord for any leadings. He said “the prison… there will be a man standing there….listen to him.”

We met up and I shared with the team. There was only three of us, so we went together towards the prison. We walked round it and on the third side there was a man standing there opposite the prison wall. I said to the others “walk on and I’ll catch you up”. I started chatting to the guy, who said he was waiting for an appointment at 11.30 in the building opposite the prison. He said “are you a counsellor?” I said “no”. He saw my badge and said: “are you an evangelist?” I said I was and we chatted about God, church and Jesus. He told me he was suffering from shingles and had suffered since 2003. He confirmed he was feeling the pain as we talked, in his chest and arm. I shared about Jesus healing people and offered to pray for his shingles. He said OK so I laid hands on his chest and arm and prayed. I then asked him for feedback and he said there a slight reduction in the level of pain he was feeling. I offered to pray again, saying: “if you went to the Dr and he gave you two weeks worth of tablets, you wouldn’t just take one and throw away the rest, would you?” He agreed that was silly, so agreed to more prayer. I prayed again and immediately he said:”I’m not just saying this, but the pain’s gone in both my chest AND my arm!” I suggested he thank Jesus since he was the Healer, not me. Almost straight away he said: “I expect it will come back, though”. I said: “no, Satan is the one who steals and destroys.” Keep thanking Jesus and if it tries to come back again, say no!”

During our chat he also mentioned about life being a journey, so I gave him the “Journey Into Life” booklet by Norman Warren, to take away.